Western Civilization Timeline

Montesquieu’s greatest work was the spirit of the laws written in 1748, which has had a long lasting impact on society. He ushered in a new era where within government there has to be a separation of powers to make it harder for dictatorships to arise. This practice of the separation of powers within the government is still in use today by democracies all over the world.

27th Oct, 1773

Rebellion of Peasants in Russia

Because of Catherine the Great's increasing favorism for the nobility, the peasants in Russia broke out in rebellion to fight for better rights. They were quickly shut down and Catherine harshened serfdom and conditions.

27th Jan, 1776

The Steam Engine

The invention of the steam engine by James Watt revolutionized the production of cotton goods, allowed the factory system to spread to other areas of production, and created whole new industries during the period of the Industrial Revolution.

1st Jan, 1784

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was the first man to define the enlightenment of the 18th century by proclaiming that man would not be ignorant towards reality anymore. He encouraged individuals to think for themselves instead of following others blindly. Liberty he thought was to have the freewill to think, speak, and live freely

1st Jan, 1785

The Charter of the Nobility

The Charter of Nobility (Russian)
Catherine established this system, The Charter of Nobility, to help the landholding class because it divided the nation into provinces and then districts ran by officials chosen by nobility. It allowed the noble, wealthy people to control the rights and what goes on in Russia.

14th Jul, 1789

Fall of the Bastille

The fall of the Bastille acted as a flashpoint during the French revolution. It's power represented the French government and it's fall was a precursor of what was to come.

This book was written July 1817. This book was about a mad scientist who creates a humanlike monster that goes crazy. During this time a lot of romantics experimented with cocaine, opium, and hashish to find their own crazy experiences.

28th Jul, 1824

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

This is considered one of Beethoven's best pieces of work and this was his last piece of work. This was completed when Beethoven was totally deaf. This symphony was composed in July of 1824.

2nd May, 1830

The Revolutions of 1830

In 1830 the ultra royalists under Bourbon monarch Charles X to restore the old regime led to a revolt by liberals in 1830 also known as the July Revolution in French, saw the overthrow of Kind Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, the Duc d'Orleans, who himself, after 18 precarios years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown.

1st Jan, 1848

Karl Marx

Karl Marx wrote the communist manifesto in 1848 and it changed the social structure of society forever. Marx empowered the working class by proclaiming that having a classless society was the only way to end what he saw as the never ending class struggle in modern society.

1st Jan, 1850

Trade Unions (1850s)

A new social class of wage earners began to emerge after the Industrial Revolution which led to the rise of trade unions, associations formed by skilled workers in a number of new industries, whose two purposes were to preserve own workers' positions by limiting entry into their trade and to gain benefits from employers.

1st May, 1851

The Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition in 1851 was Britain's first industrial fair held at Kensington in London in the Crystal Palace which allowed Britain to show off more than a hundred thousand exhibits that showed a wide variety of products created by the Industrial Revolution.

1st Jan, 1859

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin proposed the theory of organic evolution changing the way we thought about life. It proposed that species eons ago evolved and changed overtime into the plants and animals we see today. He believed that plants and animals evolved certain characteristics overtime to help certain organisms survive. Those that could not adapt simply went extinct while those who adapted survived. The theory is still considered controversial today.

1st Jan, 1871

The New Mass Society

A cause of why the Second Industrial Revolution was so progressive is because of the population growth, between the years 1850-1910 (270 to 460 million). With numbers growing the society had to conform. New patterns and markets were taking hold because of new inventions and advertising. Social statuses again changed according to new jobs. Opportunities opened up for women, while children were forced into schools. The streets became safer and cleaner to live in. Change was progression.

On June 28th. 1914, the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Bosnian activist, who worked for a Serbian terrorist organization dedicated to the creation of a pan-Slavic kingdom. The assassignation allowed for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, which led to the beginning of World War I.

7th May, 1915

The Lusitania

On May 7th, 1915, Germany sank the British passenger liner Lusitania by unrestricted submarine warfare, killing one hundred Americans and causing the entry of the United States into World War I.

28th Jun, 1919

The Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 was an agreement between the United States, France and Great Britain held in Versailles to negotiate a peace settlement with the defeated nations, with the main concern on giving reperations to the country of Germany since they were declared responsible for starting World War I.

13th Oct, 1925

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was the very first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her reign lasted from 1979 to 1990 when she resigned partially due to unpopularity.

28th Oct, 1929

Stock Market Crash

One of the major causes of the Great Depression.

7th Dec, 1941

Bombing of Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was the catalyst that pushed the United States into WWII. The Japanese attacked a military outpost at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941.
Before this gruesome attack the United States was neutral in WWII. More than 2,000 people lost their lives on what was dubbed by then president Franklin D. Roosevelt, “ A date which will live in infamy.”

6th Jun, 1944

D-Day

D-Day was the allied mission to storm the beaches of Normandy France to face the German advance into Europe head on. After heavy loses on both sides the successful taking of the beach by allied forces allowed them to push on into Paris, which changed the tide of the war and sealed the German Third Reich’s eventual demise.

6th Aug, 1945

Hiroshima

On August 6th 1945, Under the executive order of President Harry S. Truman, The United States of America dropped an atomic bomb named “ Little Boy” on Hiroshima Japan killing between 90,000-166,000 people. Hiroshima was the first city ever to be atomic bombed in history. A second atomic bomb was also dropped 3 days later onto Nagasaki Japan, which forced a Japanese surrender that abruptly ended WWII.

1st Apr, 1949

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

NATO Singing
This treaty was signed by ten northern atlantic nations, along with the United States and Canada to feel safe and have support if anyone was attacked by neighboring, western nations. This treaty was important because it again rose tensions and created hostility throughout the world between leading powers (United States and Soviet Union), during the Cold War.

1st Jan, 1956

The Unheavels In Eastern Europe

With Khrushchev estbalishing the new rule of Stalinization many smaller nations in the west were put into horrific harsh conditions. Both Poland and Hungary tried to declare their nations free but upheavel. Khrushchev shut down their rebellions quickly and this discouraged any future change for following nations.

1st Jan, 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis

This Crisis was during the year 1962 where the United States wanted to invade Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro's reign. The Soviet Union threatened to stage missiles in Cuba (90 miles from US territory) if they invaded (The Bay of Pigs). Fast decisions and talks were set up between Kennedy and Khrushchev, finally resulting in no nuclear testing in the atmosphere. This was a time a great tension and fear.

9th Nov, 1989

Collapse of the Berlin Wall

After the German Communist government in East Germany opened their border with the West on November 9th, 1989, the long symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, started to get torn down by thousands of people using sledgehammers.

1st Jan, 1994

The European Union

The European Community renamed itself the European Union, which was a true economic and monetary union, on January 1st, 1994 and sucessfully achieved its two major goals by 2002 which were the creation of a single internal market and a common currency.

11th Sep, 2001

Terroist Attack on the World Trade Center in New York City

The rise of terrorism after the Cold War led to the event of September 11th, 2001, when two commerical jet airplanes, hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists, flew directly into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing thousands of American civilians and leaving the United States in a state of war.

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1st Jan, 1473to1st Jan, 1543

Nicolaus Copernicus

Sun-Centered Concept
He studied mathematics and astronomy first at Krakow in his native Poland and later at the Italian universities of Bologna and Padua, published his famous book "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres". He came up with the idea of heliocentric (sun-centered) conception; the belief that the sun, not the earth, is at the center of the universe.

1st Jan, 1564to1st Jan, 1642

Galileo Galilei

Picture of Galileo
When Galileo published his book The Starry Messenger in 1610 in stunned his comtemporaries and probably did more to take Europeans more aware about the new image of the universe rather than the mathematical theories of Copernicus and Kepler.

1st Jan, 1642to1st Jan, 1727

Isaac Newton

Picture of Newton
Famous for his definition about the basic concepts of mechanics by elaborating the three laws of motion: every object continues in a state of rest of uniform motion in a straight line unless deflected by a force; the rate of change of motion of an object is proportional to the force acting on it; and to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.

1st Jan, 1689to1st Jan, 1755

Baron de Montesquieu

Baron de Montesquieu</a>Baron de Montesquieu was a philosopher of the enlightenment of the 17th century who brought the idea of enlightenment to the world when he proposed that the natural laws of nature should govern civil society
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1st Jan, 1750to1st Jan, 1790

European Population Growth

The population growth of Europe between the years 1700 and 1750 was 120 million to 140 million; and again grew to 190 million in 1790. During the second years of time the population grew an excessive number in only a few years. Multiple reasons were, the disappearance of the plague, newer crops, and better transportation of food supply.

1st Jan, 1756to1st Jan, 1763

Seven Years' War

Seven Year's War Video Clip
This (obviously stated) seven year war was routed with the previous war, The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Many countries were not happy with their tied alliances, demanded reparations, and wanted more territory. This global war cut into the world and divided the continents into, what we know today, North America, Europe and India. It was also sometimes known as the French and Indian War.

1st Jan, 1762to1st Jan, 1796

Catherine the Great of Russia

Catherine the Great was a German Princess who married Peter III and after he was killed she took over his reign in Russia. Catherine’s powerful reign expanded Russia westward (into Poland), beat the Ottoman Turks and saved the Greek Orthodox Christians

6th May, 1856to23rd Sep, 1939

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who was most well known for his use of psychoanalysis. He was also very interested in studies of the unconcious mind.

1st Jan, 1861to1st Jan, 1865

President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States when the civil war broke out in
1861. He was the symbol of the north and pushed for the abolishment of slavery, which was the spark that started the civil war. Soon after the war had started he signed the emancipation proclamation that freed all African slaves in 1863 but was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. By the end of Abraham Lincoln

7th Nov, 1867to4th Jul, 1934

Marie Curie

Marie Curie was a Nobel Prize winnig scientist. She is most renowned for her work with radioactivity and discovery of Radium.Marie Curie

1st Jan, 1871to31st Dec, 1914

The Second Industrial Revolution

Steel (this is was the new common resource)
This Second industrialization in the West was known as "The Age of Progress". Its tone was different from the first Industrial Revolution; it came up with a lot more people inventions rather then transportation and factories. With new inventions it changed the face of social statuses and the society overall.

14th Mar, 1879to18th Apr, 1955

Albert Einstein

Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He was well known for his Theory of Relativity.

28th Jan, 1929to30th Oct, 1940

The Great Depression

The Great Depression was caused by two major factors; domestic economics took a major downturn and the American Stock Exchange collapsed on October 1929. Many people think the Great Depression only happened in America but it effected many countries including mostly European Nations.

1st Nov, 1955to30th Apr, 1975

Vietnam War

VietnamThe Vietnam War was a deadly conflict that spanned across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The war eventually ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam.

1st Jan, 1970to31st Dec, 1970

Watergate

Watergate was a political scandal that occured during the 1970's. It involved the break-in of a democratic office in Washington, D.C. and eventually led to the resignation of president Nixon.Watergate